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Thursday, December 8, 2016

Ballerina Quilt - Samantha's Quilt

I loved the idea for the "4 in the Raw quilt" designed by Helen Godden published in the Australian Quilter Companion magazine Vol.9.6 No.46. I did some tweaking which resulted in my version of her idea. Warning this quilt is very bright, lots of hot colours on a dark background....

First I prepared the Ballerina designs. I've played around drawing four different 10" square ballerina's. The designs are reversed for use with fusible web.

The next step was to trace the designs onto the paper side of each 10" square of fusible web and numbered the shapes to identify them.

Using a hot iron to fuse one square to the wrong side of each of my chosen four squares of coloured fabric. A total of sixteen square were needed.

Then it was time to cut these squares into pieces along the marked lines. As every piece of each square will be used in this design, I had to make sure to cut alone the lines carefully and keep all the pieces together.

The next step was to reconstruct the sixteen squares. Placing them in a row on a flat surface.

From each of the four ballerina squares, I removed the centre and set it aside. The rest of the pieces became a Jig Saw puzzle placing them I different fabric arrangements. As there are five pieces and four colours in each square, there will be two pieces of one colour in each new square. These colours can't be placed next to each other, the two pieces of the same colour fabric must be placed opposite each other.

This is the fun part, position the newly formed squares on the gridded homespun black background fabric, leaving a channel approximately 1" between the squares to create a narrow black sashing.

When I was happy with the placement I removed the paper from the fusible web and used a hot dry iron to fuse the pieces to the background.

I am stitching around the raw edges of each piece in each square, I am using blanket stitch but a zig-zag stitch would look OK. Also I am using an invisible thread to make the stitching less obvious.

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About Me

Hi, I live in Western Australia I am married with two grown sons and six grandchildren and my two daughter-in-laws are wonderful. I love all forms of patchwork and quilting from scrap quilts, hand and machine-piecing, to foundation-piecing and fusible applique.
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